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CPX Program Attendance and Professionalism Policies

Overview

CPX Program Attendance

Your attendance is required at your scheduled Mini-CPX and CPX sessions. Clerkship directors are aware that these exams are required, but students must communicate appropriately with their clerkship/site director and coordinator about being absent from clinical responsibilities during their scheduled exam time. Clinical rotation responsibilities are NOT cause for excused absences.

Mini-CPX and CPX exams involve paid standardized patients. Thus, please note that there may be a financial consequence to you if you are absent without prior arrangement from your scheduled Mini-CPX or CPX sessions. You will receive advance scheduling notice for these exams via email with your specific date and time. To accommodate your individual scheduling conflicts, a specific time period will be allotted for trades, after which your assigned date will be confirmed. It is critical that you arrive on time to your assigned session.

Because of the extraordinary logistics of setting up these exams, scheduling makeup sessions becomes extremely labor intensive and cost prohibitive. It may not be possible to reschedule the exam.

Policy

Consequences for unexcused absences from Mini-CPX or CPX sessions

If you have an unexcused absence:

You may be fully responsible for paying the standardized patients’ fees for your rescheduled session. This cost may be approximately $200.

May result in failure of the CPX exam (which is a graduation requirement).

Students are expected to demonstrate professional behavior throughout all exams, including responding in a timely manner to scheduling communications and arriving on time to all scheduled sessions. Students are also expected to dress for clinical encounters for all three exams, including wearing a white coat, UCSF ID, stethoscope, and professional attire. Scrubs are not permitted.

The CPX staff will complete a professionalism checklist for each student, and any lapses in professionalism will be reported to the Director of the CPX, Associate Dean for Assessment, and Associate Dean for Curriculum.